Shigeru Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto


1. Nominee Profile - Faces of Innovation
I nominate Shigeru Miyamoto as a candidate for one of the “faces” of innovation. Shigeru represents many of the faces of evolution, although his primary ones are the experimenter, cross pollinator, and hurdler.



Experimenter
When Shigeru Miyamoto was a child, he didn’t really have any toys, so he made his own, out of wood and string. He put on performances with homemade puppets and made cartoon flipbooks. He pretended that there were magical realms hidden behind the sliding screens in his family’s little house. He would make different scenarios in his head, test different ways of playing, and that ended up being applied to his work. As Nintendo’s creative taskmaster, Miyamoto had a hand in most facets of the development and design of the Wii, introduced in 2006. The Wii stems from Miyamoto experiencing activities such as pretending to swing a sword, or aiming a toy gun, all based from his childhood. It was the first wireless motion-capture gaming console; sensors allow players to dictate the movements of their onscreen avatars. Miyamoto is always trying to work on the newest innovation at his company; he collaborates with many other people to find a vision. Miyamoto tells people that it’s all about enjoying something, especially with other people. Miyamoto used to draw cartoons. He would show them to some of his friends, expecting that they were going to appreciate them that they were going to enjoy reading them. He hasn’t changed a bit about that. When Miyamoto is making video games today, he wants people to be entertained. Miyamoto constantly thinks, how are people going to enjoy playing the games we are making today? And as long as he can enjoy something other people can enjoy it too.
Cross-Pollinators
Cross-pollinators stir up new ideas by exploring worlds that may at first glance seem to have little relevance to the problems at hand. Which means that “cross-pollinators” must not only have a diverse and...